The Book of Five Rings: Five Scrolls Describing the True Principles Required for Victory

Good book.

Be very careful, which book you purchase. "A Book of Five Rings" was first translated from Japanese to English by Victor Harris in 1974. Reading the reviews, many people have purchased a book by the wrong author or edition.1) The original book by Musashi is nearly 500 years old and cannot be protected by copyright. 2) Many presumed authors have published fake translations of the Victor Harris book, and very few actual new translations from Japanese. 3) While Harris worked in the museum and was an accomplished swordsman, the book is not trying to teach modern Samurai swordsmanship. 4) The real value of the book is to understand that to survive 60 duels - whether boxing, with pistols or the Olympics, requires extreme attention to microscopic details. 5) Consider this as making 60 complicated cabinets of walnut - with zero mistakes and minimal pieces of scrap. 6) Whatever your profession, read the book as if your first mistake is your last mistake. Regards.

This book is frequently recommended and for good reason! Whilst being relatively short it’s a good read and provides useful insight.

You can apply these teachings in everything. I don't normally recommend something to everyone but this is a book almost anyone could learn from.

Lovely introduction with history of Japan and basics of samurai,then straight into the philosophy of the way of the samurai what more could you ask for.

I like the artwork which adorns most of the pages. Although when reading I did find myself questioning what I hope to learn from an undefeated Samurai of so long ago. So few of my battles in life involve swordsmanship. Indeed, I'm not sure I'm allowed to have a sword let alone settle my everyday differences with it. Nobody else here has swords either, and if they do they likely have no swordsmanship skills.Miyamoto Musashi's life on the other hand seemed to be a constant stream of life or death duels. A duel for breakfast, a duel for afternoon tea and then rank and file warfare at night in command of legions. It's hard to connect to that.All I got from it was that in conflict of any kind, this man does not retreat. All of his strategies in combat seem based around this. To disregard his own death and just plow through the opponent, overwhelm them, become a force of nature. How you apply this to other fields is up to you.